New Mule refines cloud deployments

Further tweaking its software for cloud deployments, MuleSoft has updated its Mule enterprise service bus (ESB) with a wider range of tools to support use in hosted environments.

Mule ESB 3.1, released this week, has updated a tool set called Mule Cloud Connect, which was first introduced in Mule 3.0, released in September.

Mule Cloud Connect supplied a way to bridge enterprise data and applications with hosted Web applications and SaaS (software as a service) offerings. It included connectors to Salesforce.com, Amazon Web Services, Facebook and other cloud services.

The previous version still required a fair amount of knowledge about Mule in order to configure, said Mateo Almenta Reca, Mule senior product manager.

The new version simplifies the deployment process such that non-programmers could set up connections to the cloud, Reca said. It also includes a Cloud Connect Toolkit that developers can use to create connections to new services.

Further supporting cloud activity, the software also features a new capability called Flow, an orchestration editor that can be used to cobble together multiple services into a single workflow. In-house services can be mixed with those offered externally.

Also new for Mule 3.1 is an updated management console. It is designed in such a way that it can be used by both the development teams who write the workflows as well as by the operational teams who run the resulting workflows. This singular view should cut down on the amount of back-and-forth communication between the two teams that is usually required to deploy a new workflow, Reca said.

The management console also now includes customizable dashboards and a more sophisticated access control system.

Mule ESB is a lightweight open source messaging engine. MuleSoft has estimated the software has been downloaded 1.5 million times. The company supports 2,500 production deployments of the software.

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